William Tevie
The report on the $4 million allegedly siphoned from the coffers of the National Communications Authority (NCA) by the bigwigs of the government institution has taken a new twist.
Even though he has been mentioned as one of the bigwigs who benefited from the purportedly missing $4 million, William Tevie, the immediate-past Director General of the Authorit, has denied any involvement in the reported scandal.
He said he never admitted to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) or any other investigative body that he collected any amount of money from the contract that was signed with an Israeli company to bring in ‘spying and phone tapping’ gadgets for the National Security Secretariat (NSS).
Last week, Information Minister Mustapha Hamid narrated how the NCA board members unlawfully shared $1.5 million out of $4 million, which was part of the entire $8 million contract signed between President John Dramani Mahama’s National Democratic Congress (NDC) government and NSO Group Technology Limited of Israel to supply eavesdropping gadgets to help the government monitor the calls of suspected terrorists.
The minister had said that in the course of the transaction, a local agent – Infraloks Development Limited (IDL) – headed by one George Oppong, charged $2 million as facilitation fee, bringing the total contract sum to $8 million, instead of the original $6 million.
Mr Mustapha Hamid then went ahead to mention the names of all the NCA gurus who allegedly took the cash and gave a breakdown of how much each suspect collected.
The Minister added that some of the recipients had promised to refund their share of the cash.
“Mr. Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, former Board Chairman, took $200,000; George Oppong, the local agent, took $100,000; William Tevie, the former Director General, got $150,000; Alhaji Osman, a former Deputy National Security Coordinator, received $70,000, with one other person receiving $500,000,” he said.
However, Mr. Tevie issued a rejoinder over the weekend to DAILY GUIDE in particular, demanding a retraction and apology and insisting he never collected any money from the board.
DAILY GUIDE in all its reports had stated that Mr Tevie denied the allegation, insisting that he was not aware of the sharing of the state money even though the board chairman insisted in the presence of investigators that Tevie was given $150,000.
“I have never, at any time, whether privately, before the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) or any state investigating agency, admitted that I, William Tevie, former Director General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), accepted any money or monies, and which I have agreed to refund.
“I was invited by the BNI and questioned about an allegation that some former board members of the NCA and I were given an amount of money to share. I categorically denied the allegation,” adding, “If the alleged monies were given or received by anybody or group of persons, I am not aware and I was definitely not a party to it.’”
He maintained that “I hesitate to irresponsibly go into specifics because the transaction in question was handled by the National Security Council Secretariat because of its very sensitive nature.”
According to National Security sources, the payment made by the NCA was improper because it did not receive board approval since there was no minute to support it.
By William Yaw Owusu